I’m Better Than You

We see people all the time arguing in forums and email discussions. I sometimes wonder if it is really about arriving at some truth or just about who is the better person because they hold a view they feel is the best. The following is an extreme example. It would be funny if someone wasn’t dead.

NEW MARTINSVILLE – Robert A. Maine Jr. has confessed to murdering his cousin after the two argued over “who was a better person,” a New Martinsville detective said Thursday.

According to the investigator, the shooting victim was a father-to-be.

Maine, 30, is scheduled to appear Tuesday in Wetzel County Magistrate Court for a preliminary hearing on a charge of murder. He is accused of killing 30-year-old Gregory G. Maine at about 1:30 a.m. in his Rose Street residence with a single blast from a high-powered rifle. The shot was fired into the victim’s upper body at point-blank range, according to Detective Donnie Harris.

Robert Maine was arrested in the early evening Saturday in Wheeling following a well-orchestrated manhunt involving the West Virginia State Police, the Ohio County Sheriff’s Department and the Wheeling Police Department. He was found in a cave in the Tunnel Green section of Wheeling, and a State Police trooper placed the suspect in handcuffs as he slept. Harris said Robert Maine confessed to the killing shortly after his arrest.

Harris said he believes Robert Maine was under the influence of alcohol when he fired the shot that claimed his cousin’s life. In addition to Robert and Gregory Maine, there were two other people in the area of the home in which the shot was fired. Three other people were in the upstairs of the residence, the investigator said.

Harris said he does not believe the suspect has shown remorse, and the motive behind the killing is difficult to understand.

“They argued over who was a better person,” Harris said. “It was an ‘I’m a better than you’ type thing.”

The shooting victim initially was transported to Wetzel County Hospital, but he was then taken Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, where he was pronounced dead.